FreeCreditReport Wins Over 1,000 Domain Names In Dispute Process
from the trademark-control dept
It's quite common for various trademark holders to go through the UDRP domain dispute process to get back domains held by cybersquatters. Still, it's quite impressive to hear that FreeCreditReport.com was able to get 1,017 separate domain names in a single dispute (found via Slashdot) apparently by using some sort of software that identified all the domains. The company that held the domain names argued, in part, that the term "free credit report" should be seen as generic, not a specific trademark, but the arbitration board simply said that since the USPTO had granted FreeCreditReport.com with a trademark, that the trademark was solid -- and thus most domain names that included those words could be turned over.This does raise some questions however -- since we've seen plenty of other cases where domains that included trademarked terms, but which would not be confusing to users (such as "trademarknamesucks.com"), have been allowed to be used by the original registrant, rather than handed over to the trademark holder. It's unclear, in this case, if some of those domains were like that -- or if they were all pure squatter domains. Still, it's quite an impressive haul by FCR.
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Filed Under: domain names, trademark
Companies: freecreditreport.com
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Kind of silly
Let's assume $10 per yr, that would be $10170.00 just to maintain them for one year. Are there really that many ignorant people paying for their "free credit report" ?
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They make a ton of money the old fashioned way.
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;-)
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Whoever suggested that is an idiot. Under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three main credit reporting companies in a 12-month period.
Here is the link to the Fair Credit Reporting Act .pdf:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/031224fcra.pdf
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Further, your credit report not only provides you with all of the information in your credit file that could be provided by the consumer reporting company in a consumer report about you to a third party, but it also includes a record of everyone who has received a consumer report about you from the consumer reporting company within a certain period of time.
If anything it's better, not worse, because it is more comprehensive.
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Just because they *can* and are *obliged* to provide a report including the things you say doesn't mean that they do. The report involves running queries with correct parameters to the right databases. It is quite possible these people don't know how to, or don't go to the effort of, doing this properly.
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What's amusing is the bit where they talk about how free credit report was represented, not by lawyers, but by this automated UDRP service. The whole thing looks to me like scammers representing scammers who are being impersonated by scammers.
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Fear the credit report! Woooo!
from a site that requires me to enroll in a monthly credit monitoring service called "Triple Advantage"...
that's also conveniently owned by a Credit Bureau...
when I am entitled to a free credit report under The Fair Credit Reporting Act.
I may not be as big of a pushover as most, but is there something wrong with this logic? Because it seems like someone's making a lot of money off of playing to people's fears.
I worry more about these people who work at the bureaus--
"Better make sure dem interwebs people aren't settin' up fake free credit report sites when we need to corner the market..!"
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I wonder who the FTC is talking about. Any guesses?
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Also, why is the Federal Reserve now tasked with overseeing Gift Card legislation and not the FTC?
There used to be a time, not long ago, that the FTC had teeth to rip apart the fast food industry for showing burgers that were inedible. What happened?
Why is the FTC warning me about impostor websites that I thought it had the ability to regulate through Truth In Advertising?
The promise of a "Free Credit Report" seems very applicable.
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My memory is somewhat fading, but I think as a result of a settlement of some sort, legislature castrated the FTC and DOJ to only able to get involved after there's a civil dispute that makes it's way to a Circuit level.
Of course, I could be completely wrong.
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After all, "Only one website is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law — annualcreditreport.com. " (Source: FTC Website)
This seems fishy and the FTC should investigate it further.
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As far as this particular scam goes (and it is a scam), it seems like it's just not high enough on the food chain to warrant a smack-down with the resources that they currently have.
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As far as this particular scam goes (and it is a scam), it seems like it's just not high enough on the food chain to warrant a smack-down with the resources that they currently have.
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As far as this particular scam goes (and it is a scam), it seems like it's just not high enough on the food chain to warrant a smack-down with the resources that they currently have.
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FYI...
On a side note... who is going to sue freecreditreport.com and the like for trying to cash in on the FACT Act through misleading advertising?
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The list of domain names
Most of the names are typographical variations on the freecreditreport.com scheme, or add state names to that name.
I didn't notice any domain names that expressly included critical words, but in isolation that would not matter if, for example, one of these names had been registered for a web site that comments on freecreditreport.com. However, the very length of the list of typosquat-type names tends to suggest what the registrant was trying to do.
A few are rather curious, though. For example, these three domain names: , , . None of these doamin names are actually about the complainant, because a review of the "freecrecitreport.com" site suggests that you cannot get your report without giving a credit card number. The site says:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple Advantage(SM). If you don't cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period†, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership.
I did not give them any info about myself to sign up, but presumably you have to give a credit card number for them to effectuate the monthly billing that is automatic for those who don't cancel.....
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1) freecreditreportwithnocreditcard.com
2) freecreditreportwithoutcreditcard.com>
3) freecreditreportwithoutusingacreditcard.com
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This is excellent news
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Arbitration is rarely fair
Free Credit Report at least had a claim, and wasn't doing something which could be described as cyber squating, so they had that going for them.
Fun facts about the National Arbitration Forum and how they rule against Citizen Joe 95% of the time
http://consumerist.com/304648/arbitration-firm-rules-against-consumers-95-of-the-time
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rogue trademarks
-wvhillbilly-lost account in hard drive crash
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wondering
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